49ers’ York: ‘Dwight deserves to see a lot of red and gold on Sunday’

There has been a decidedly blue hue to the crowd the last two times the Cowboys have visited the 49ers.

“I couldn’t believe it,” linebacker Ahmad Brooks said after last year’s 24-17 loss to Dallas. “I was like, ‘There’s more Dallas Cowboys fans than there are 49ers fans.’”

This year the 49ers are hoping to see red. During halftime, the team will hearken back to its greatest moment, its 1981 NFC championship game win over the Cowboys that ended Dallas’ reign over the previous decade and launched a dynasty for San Francisco.

Their guest of honor is Dwight Clark, who soared in the back of the end zone to make “The Catch” in that game and who earlier this year announced he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, a terminal illness that affects the nervous system.

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Thirty eight members of the 1981 team are expected to attend. So are former owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and executive John McVay. Joe Montana will address the crowd at halftime and it’s possible that Clark will speak as well.

“Dwight was always sort of part of our extended family,” CEO Jed York said Thursday. “He and my uncle (DeBartolo Jr.) are extremely, extremely close. … It’s going to be special to have a day that really honors him, that we can celebrate the great person that he is, certainly the 49ers icon and legend that he is and allow him to be with his teammates and really enjoy the glory that he deserves and the accolades that he deserves from this fan base.”

Cowboys cornerback Everson Walls, who was covering Clark when he scored his famous touchdown and who, along with Clark, has become immortalized in the photographs of the play, will be the lone member of the 1981 Cowboys to attend. He and Clark became friends over the last two decades.

York said he knows Walls won’t be the only Cowboys supporter in Levi’s Stadium. But he hopes it won’t be more than half full of Dallas fans like it was last year. The 49ers are giving out red T-shirts with Clark’s No. 87 and the image of Clark stretching for his famous touchdown catch to fans who attend the game.

The team’s coaches, including coordinators Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh, as well as general manager John Lynch, were wearing the t-shirts during Friday’s practice.

“I think every team has tickets on the secondary market,” York said. “I’d love for our fans to be the ones that are buying those as opposed to the opposing team. I would just encourage it. Don’t do it for me, do it for Dwight. Dwight deserves to see a lot of red and gold on Sunday.”